Friday 20th July 2018 - Stage 14 - Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Mende

Breakfast at 7am is not really worth mentioning as it consisted only of a croissant, pastry, glass of orange juice and coffee. Luckily we supplemented this with team supplied rolled oats.

By 8:30am we were on the road under cloudy skies. There were some odd drops of early rain but this cleared.

Scenery was gorges, rocks and rolling country which lead to the first climb to 81km and the first feed station.

Climbing the next col for the day, I steamed straight through the 2nd feed stop after one rider had pushed the pace on the lower slopes. Rolling down the other side, I passed a donkey at a cafe. As it was downhill, I did not stop for a photo.

I waited at the top of the last col for the support staff to catch up as I needed food and water. A rain storm was brewing and I was keen to stay ahead of it and set off as soon as fed and watered. Heavy rain drops fell as I set off but I managed to out ride the storm. Other riders were not so lucky and got soaked and hailed on.

Riding on solo, it was largely downhill to Mende and the usual town traffic. A short ride through town then turned up a very steep 3km hill to the Mende airport and finish line. I rode the runway as it was closed and set up for the Tour de France finish.

Another day in the saddle saw 189.2km ridden in 7hrs 33m with 3,021m of climbing.

 

Once all riders had arrived, we packed up for the drive to the hotel which we reached at 7:15pm for a 7:30pm dinner. This was a set menu in a high class restaurant (with a Michelin one star restaurant one part of the same building.) Food was again good but with small portions. They served an interesting potato mash with cheese which was very stringy but tasty.

A video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQtJxaMxrSM